More Than Half of Parents Use Facebook to Spy on Kids

By
Natalie Vincent
|
July 14, 2011 10:15 am

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Ever wondered why your Mom joined Facebook? Chances are, it was to spy on you. According to a new survey by OnePoll, a whopping 55-percent of parents are using social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to keep an eye on their children's online activities; a further 5-percent said they would if they knew how.

Eleven percent of parents polled set up their Facebook accounts purely to "snoop" on Jim and Jane, 15-percent have tried to Friend their children (Thanks Mom), with 4-percent of those requests being rejected. Not surprisingly, 13-percent have resorted to logging onto friends accounts in order to check up on their children.

When asked to explain their behavior, 36-percent blamed their "overprotective" parental instincts, where as 14-percent said they were just being "nosey". A sad 24-percent confessed that Facebook was the only way they could find out what their sons and daughters were up to, while 6-percent found that the social networking site allowed them to avoid having "awkward conversations" with their offspring.

In 2006, Facebook first opened the door to anyone over the age of 13, including parents. The influx of parental units on the social networking site has not gone down smoothly with school age kids. As of today, there are 7,766 members of the "For the love of god--don't let parents join Facebook" group, and there are hundreds of other pages dedicated to grumbling about the subject. www.myparentsjoinedfacebook.com, is a website set up purely to collect embarrassing parent/child Facebook moments and share them with the world. It's worth checking out before accepting your Mom's friend request.

Quite right too! It's important the parents get to grips with modern technology in order to try and look after their children. 'When I were a lad' my mum knew where I was and if I wasn't home by the time agreed there was explaining to do. It's not 'Spying', it's good parenting!